Mark Paoletta

Private practice and White House work (1987–1995)

After graduating from Georgetown University, Paoletta worked for a private law firm in Washington, D.C. Following George H. W. Bush's victory in the 1988 presidential election, Bush's presidential transition staff offered Paoletta a position in Bush's administration.^[4] Paoletta began working for the White House in January 1989^[2] as the deputy associate director of White House personnel, assisting the administration in staffing the Department of Justice and regulatory commissions.^[4] By that year, he had married Patricia Jones,^[4] with whom he has two children.^[2] By June 1992, Paoletta had become an assistant counsel in the Office of the White House Counsel.^[7] He rejoined O'Connor & Hannan as a partner in June 1993, specializing in legislative matters and litigation.^[8] By August 1995, Paoletta had become a partner at Keck, Mahin & Cate.^[9]

House Committee on Energy and Commerce (1997–2007)

By November 1997, Paoletta had become the chief counsel of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He was involved in investigating a campaign finance controversy over alleged Chinese interference in Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign; an internal memorandum written by Paoletta, which claimed there was "no smoking gun", was used by some Democrats to exonerate Clinton.^[10] Paoletta led inquiries into the Enron scandal; the ImClone stock trading case, which involved the businesswoman Martha Stewart;^[3] and the Hewlett-Packard spying scandal.^[11]

Return to private practice (2007–2017)

Following the commencement of the 110th United States Congress in January 2007, Dickstein Shapiro announced that it had hired Paoletta.^[11] By August, he had begun representing the political strategist Scott Jennings in proceedings over Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's responsibility in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys the previous year.^[12] The personal trainer Brian McNamee added Paoletta to his legal team as he was accused of having provided anabolic steroids to the baseball pitcher Roger Clemens.^[13] In September 2008, John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign hired Paoletta to respond to attacks about McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin.^[14] Paoletta additionally represented Timothy E. Wilens and Thomas Spencer, researchers at Harvard University who were alleged to have had a conflict of interest in advocating for administering antipsychotic medicines to children,^[15] as well as LightSquared and its parent company, Harbinger Capital.^[16] In September 2016, Paoletta established his own firm, MP Strategies.^[17]

Association with Clarence Thomas

According to Paoletta, he and Clarence Thomas first met when Paoletta was in college.^[17] Paoletta was involved in Thomas's hearings to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, telling the White House to take "the offense" on the proceedings.^[3] In 1991, U.S. News and World Report reported that Paoletta had become acquainted with Thomas through his Supreme Court confirmation process.^[18] Paoletta assisted Thomas in his confirmation. After Thomas was sworn in to the Supreme Court, Paoletta was diagnosed with cancer; Paoletta told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Thomas called or visited him "every single day". Paoletta later established a website to support Thomas.^[3]

In 1994, the journalists Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson published Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, a book that claimed that Paoletta had sought to garner support for Thomas, an apparent violation of the Anti-Lobbying Act. Paoletta sued Houghton Mifflin over the statement, contending that the act only covered legislation, not judicial nominations.^[19] Paoletta was represented pro bono by Thomas Yannucci, a managing partner of Kirkland & Ellis. Houghton Mifflin agreed to remove the sentence in later publications of the book in July 1995.^[9] In 2001, David Brock, the author of The Real Anita Hill (1993), claimed that Paoletta had given him damaging information about Kaye Savage, an associate of Thomas who later said that Thomas had a voluminous collection of pornography; Paoletta denied the accusations.^[20]

According to The Washington Post, Paoletta engaged in a public relations campaign for Thomas and his wife, Ginni, throughout 2016. Paoletta was paid through a non-profit firm, Judicial Education Project. After obtaining an early script of the film Confirmation, about Thomas and his accuser, Anita Hill, Paoletta wrote to HBO's president, chief executive, and the writer of the film, claiming that the script contained "numerous distortions, omissions and fabrications". Paoletta worked with a public relations firm in Alexandria, Virginia, to establish a website, confirmationbiased.com, rebuffing the film's portrayals. He criticized Hill and the film publicly in The Daily Caller, National Review, and the Washington Examiner.^[17]

After Confirmation's release, Paoletta began working with CRC Public Relations, a firm associated with Leonard Leo, the president of the Federalist Society, to create a fan account for Thomas on Twitter. Paoletta later worked on a documentary film for Thomas, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words (2020). He compiled the film's interviews into a book with the same name in 2022.^[17] By June 2022, Paoletta had begun representing Ginni Thomas. As investigators with the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol considered having her speak before the committee, Paoletta argued that the committee did not have enough justification to warrant her presence.^[21]

In April 2023, ProPublica published an article revealing that Paoletta had traveled with Thomas on a yacht owned by the billionaire Harlan Crow in 2019; at the time, Paoletta had been the general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget.^[22] The following month, ProPublica published another article revealing that Crow had paid for Thomas's grandnephew's education. Paoletta corroborated the article but defended Thomas and Crow, describing them and their wives as "kind, generous, and loving people".^[23] In August, ProPublica reported on additional trips that Paoletta had taken with Thomas, which had been previously unreported.^[24]